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Texas has sales tax? Well, I'll be damned. I suppose any amount of sales tax is really infinitesimally small when you live in California.

Also, a good portion of my family also lives in Oreg'n, so, in terms of Jon's dispersion of familial genetic material, I'm not TOO far off .

I suppose any amount of sales tax is really infinitesimally small when you live in California.

Come to Britain. Enjoy VAT at 17.5%. Then you'll know what a punitive sales tax is really like.

Oh, and here's something else to consider. If you buy a new car in the UK, the sale price of the car is inflated by a special tax called, with disarming honesty, "new car tax". Then, the VAT is levied on top of that. But the VAT is calculated not on the original sale price, but on the sale price plus the new car tax. So the VAT becomes, in effect, a tax tax. So for some things here in the UK, we pay taxes on them, then pay taxes on the taxes. A little piece of leaglised government robbery that would, if I were to try something similar in business, see me spending the next seven years trying very hard not to become Blonde Booty Betty for the 7ft tall tattoed biker sharing my cell.

Then, before you can take the car on the road, you have to buy another tax disc, which effectively is a fee for using the roads for a year. £155 out of your wallet again before you've even put the key in the door lock. Oh, and you have to pay this every year for as long as you use the car.

Then you have to insure it. It's illegal in the UK to drive a car without an adequate insurance policy. So, you pay the insurers to let you drive the car. But, and get this, you pay tax on the insurance as well. Ker-ching number 3.

Then you have to have an MOT certificate, to say that the car is roadworthy. Again, another £100 or so vanishes from your wallet.

Finally, you get to drive the car. You buy petrol for it. At £4 per gallon, because the fuel taxes are among the world's highest. Our government, bless its little cotton socks, collects no less than forty six billion pounds per year in fuel taxes from the captive cash cow that is the motorist. Figure courtesy of the government tax agancy's own website by the way.

If you happen to have any vices, our alcohol and tobacco taxes are among the world's highest. £9 billion per year is collected from smokers, and something like £20 billion per year from drinkers.

Then, when you buy a house, you're taxed on that too.A little thing called "stamp duty" applies to the purchase of new homes, to the value of 1% of the purchase price of the house. So if you buy a £100,000 house (and right now in the UK, £100,000 buys you a shack - decent houses in some parts of the country, e.g., London, are £2 million a throw) that's another £1,000 out of your pocket before you move in. Plus you pay tax on the surveyor's fees, the solicitor's fees, get the picture?

Then you move in. Immediately, you are landed with something called a Council Tax bill. Which is payable annually from that point on, as long as you live in that house. If you're in London, chances are your Council Tax is going to be stratospheric, because, again, it's based upon the value of your home - or more correctly, the value of your home as calculated by some bureaucrat who is paid to make your home as valuable as possible by counting even trivial necessities as 'added value amenites', so God help you if you've just bought a house with a conservatory fitted. Some people in London are paying £1,800 per year for the privilege of having their bins emptied once per month.

Oh, and getting back to people with vices, the dreaded VAT works as a double hit on that too. The list price of, say, a bottle of vodka, is first inflated by the Excise Duty on alcohol (which for spirits instantly doubles the price - yes, duty on spirits over 40% alcohol by volume is 100%) and THEN the VAT is calculated on top of that - not the original list price, but the list price plus the 100% duty. Which whacks up the original list price to something like 235% of what it was.

OH, and you don't get away from VAT when you pay gas and electricity bills either. It's levied on those too. Yes, we pay taxes for the privilege of paying bills.

So, you seek solace from all of this relentless plundering of your wallet by sitting in front of the TV. Oh dear. Along comes another tax. The TV licence. £140 per year. Failure to purchase a TV licence incurs criminal penalties (it's the UK equivalent of a felony offence in the States), and you're looking at a fine of up to £5,000 and six months' jail time for non-payment. So unless you want to end up being the prison wife of some tattooed biker with a string of axe murders to his name, you pay up.

Then, finally, you die. And lo and behold, if you're deemed to be 'rich' (because you prudently saved money while alive, or you bought a house that went up spectacularly in value, as has happened to a lot of people in London), then wham, along comes Inheritance Tax. Which your surviving relatives have to pay. 40% of your assets upon death go straight to the taxman.

Compared to this, California is probably a cake walk.


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

Depends a lot. My dad makes enough money (progressive tax) that more than half of his income goes straight to tax. So really he doesn't get to take much home.

And I myself do know a bit about the astronomical taxes in Britain. I did live there for 2 years myself.

Anyway, back on topic, I'm not married, but my mom has done some things to my tanks that I'm not really happy with. But I can't complain too much. She does maintain them at least a little while I'm away at school.

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Well............... don't keep us wondering superlion........ what did your well meaning mom do with your tanks? It's ok............. we won't tell.

My husband has never had the least bit of interest in my tank. It is just a peice of furniture to him. A decoration for our living room, he likes the way it looks, has lots of input on where I put it, thats about it though. But a couple of days ago ( I am recycling my tank due to a move) he mentioned something about what my fish did when he was feeding it. And I was like "FEEDING IT!!!???" And he was like "Yeah I like to feed him too." What he doesnt get is the whole overfeeding issue and what that is doing to the bottom of my tank, as I dont yet have any bottom feeders! And as I know he is a man who revels in excess, I am sure he was very generous with the flakes. I think he gets it now.
My husband is a brilliant businessman, a real numbers kind of guy, he is also big and brauny and doesnt know his own strength at all. A bull-in-a-china-shop, if you will. He can't fix or repair, or maintain anything, if he tries he just breaks it. Destroys it. He can't change a windshield wiper on the car without (accidently) tearing the whole thing off. He'd be mad if he knew I just mentioned that, lol. I call him Lenny, like from Of Mice and Men. So in essence I dont want him having the least bit of interest in my tank. Not at all! The less interest he shows when I am talking about it to him, the better!
~Lauren

"And as I know he is a man who revels in excess,......................"
Exactly! I know perfectly well where you're coming from! I'm always asking mine why he has to overdo everything?! If I ask him to bring home a bag of cookies, he brings home 3 different kinds. Our dogs had to go on a diet this summer......... I am the one that feeds them now, etc., etc..

I will admit that I tend to overfeed the fish myself, so I am trying to cut down. I feed them twice a day as much as they can eat in 30 seconds............ cause since I overdo it, I figure I am probably feeding them as much as they can eat in two minutes.

Great story though, especially since you just posted with a tank problem! And I KNOW a lot of wives have the same problem with their husband or kids feeding the fish!

Hey can I get in on the topic....

A few years back I had an 85gal tank fully stocked. Angels, Gouramis, Rainbows, Tinfoils, etc... I was pregnate at the time (6-7 mo) so I was having a little trouble doing the water changes....My husband offers to do it for me while I was at work. Leaving him instructions on what to do & how much to remove, etc....

Well later that day I get a phone call at work informing me of his concerns for the fish that they were starting to act funny & floating at the top of the tank. UUUGHH

I rushed home from work to see what was happening. He had manage to kill all my fish in a matter of minutes because he used an empty bucket out of our garage that he used for sealing our driveway. There was actually little bits of tar in my aquarium. I could have killed him. Needless to say, he does not help with care of my aquarium anymore....

I still love him, but every now & then I remind him of how he is not allowed to have fish!

My wife has her hobbies, and I have mine and we pretty much leave each other alone in those venues. She really has no interest in my tanks and/or fish and as I have no painting or singing talents, which she does, we get along great by not participating in each others areas.

And about the taxes in GB, Cali, I think that was one of the reasons we kind of kicked the Brits out to begin with over here.

Jim

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Water, taken in moderation, cannot hurt anybody. -- Mark Twain

Amen, Old Timer!!! That's why I live in Texas...we may have 8.25% sales tax on non-food items, but we DO NOT have a state income tax. Sales tax is optional depending on your purchases....income tax is mandatory if you have a job. This is a great country.

I've lived in a state that has a state income tax (Oklahoma) It totally SUCKS!!! Federal income taxes + State income taxes = I owe when all is said and done....even if I am just "middle class"

Sorry....off my soap box now....

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~~Melissa~~
"Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder."

Man, talk about taxes. I grew up in Tennessee. While there is not a state income tax, the last time I checked the sales tax was at 9.25%. So you pretty much have to add almost 10% to EVERYTHING you buy, even groceries of any kind. That kinda hurts a lot, especially the poor folks! Here in Georgia we have to pay some kind of tax on our car every year based on it's value, and get this, it's due on your birthday! It's some kind of road tax, but people here call it the birthday tax. My friend has both her and her husbands new cars registered in her name, so on her birthday this year she had to pay almost $700 in car taxes! We just moved here, and are putting off registering our vehicles because of that.

Even still, after hearing about the taxes on the Brits, I am glad I live here. Thank goodness for the American Revolution!
~Lauren

Watch out for a sudden invasion of impoverished British tax exiles TankGrrl ...

We'll all probably settle in Oregon. No sales tax, familiar weather (i.e., lots of rain), and close enough to the Canadian border for the under age drinkers to hop across.


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

UPDATE ON GENEROUS HUSBAND

All I needed to complete my stocking of schools was 4 more zebra danios & 2 more emerald cories. Hubby comes home with 2 emaralds & 5 zebra danios. No big deal ( as usual ), but I asked him, "Just out of curiosity, why 5 danios?"

He replied, "Oh, is there 5? I don't know........... I just handed the list to the sales girl & then paid for them." ( He had me write down what I wanted on a piece of paper, so he could be sure & get it right. )

I checked his receipt & he was charged for 2 cories & 5 danios.

UPDATE ON GENEROUS WIFE

As luck would have it.............. hubby came home with 4 males & 1 female danio, even though the paper he handed the salesgirl said 1 skinny & 3 fat zebra danio. I was hoping for for 1 male & 3 females. Now it looks like I have altogether, 2 females & 5 males. That just won't go in my tank, all those skinnies chasing the two females around. My conscience says I have to go to a store & hand pick 3 or 4 more females myself. I guess that was a lot to ask of a salesperson? Live & learn. I would prefer 2 females to one male, but as I'm overstocked now, I must be reasonable & at least try to make it even. So now I'm going to be the one bringing home more fish than I wanted.

exactly the reason why i married a fellow aquarium nut.

then again, i go buy my own fish, and he buys his....

and never will our tanks mix